


february face

by pyrrhlc



Series: archivist!sasha (love on a smaller stage) [1]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Archivist Sasha James, Gen, Not-Jon, i am Emo about this concept
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:00:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23476621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyrrhlc/pseuds/pyrrhlc
Summary: “Sorry,” Martin said, because that seemed to be how he started every conversation these days. “Are you busy?”“Just about to record, but it can wait. What’s up?”Martin glanced behind him uneasily, then stepped fully into the office and closed the door behind him. “It’s, um – well.” He scratched uneasily at his neck. “It’s about Jon.”Sasha wishes her job was still about people.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood & Jonathan Sims, Martin Blackwood & Sasha James
Series: archivist!sasha (love on a smaller stage) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692085
Comments: 32
Kudos: 238





	february face

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kiiro-kira](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kiiro-kira).



> hello what's up i'm emo about 161. based on [this](https://skyberia.tumblr.com/post/614338187342594048/archivist-sasha-and-notjon-who-just-looks-like).

It had been a long week for everyone, Sasha thought, but she couldn’t help but feel it was weighing especially heavily on Martin, who, nervous at the best of times, now seemed particularly uneasy. She wasn’t at all surprised to find him knocking on her door in the middle of the afternoon shift – probably would’ve been more surprised if he hadn’t, come to that. But it wasn’t as if a person was meant to know these things before asking about them.

“Come in!” she said to the knock at the door. It cracked open by an inch, then opened wider.

“Sorry,” Martin said, because that seemed to be how he started every conversation these days. “Are you busy?”

“Just about to record, but it can wait. What’s up?”

Martin glanced behind him uneasily, then stepped fully into the office and closed the door behind him. “It’s, um – well.” He scratched uneasily at his neck. “It’s about Jon.”

“Jon? What about him?”

Martin’s eyes flickered uneasily to the tape on Sasha’s desk. “That’s running again,” he muttered, though apparently more to himself than Sasha. He raised his eyes with difficulty to meet hers. “He just – he just seems different? Since, well, you know…”

Sasha raised a half-conscious hand to the scars on her face. As much as she’d appreciated Martin’s quick thinking, there were some days when it didn’t seem worth it – or maybe Tim’s half-hearted jokes about ‘wearing it better’ were getting to her at last. She forced a smile.

“It was a lot for everyone,” she said, trying to sound like a grounding force, rather than someone who’d recently realised just how deep a mess they were in. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

“He’s too nice,” Martin said bluntly. Sasha blinked, giving him a look that she hoped was as deeply confused as she felt.

“Jon’s … always been nice, Martin.”

Martin folded his arms. “No, he hasn’t. He made me a cup of tea the other day; he’s never done that before. And he asked me how I was doing.”

“And this is a problem … how, exactly?”

“You don’t think that’s a little out of character?”

The worst thing about this exchange, Sasha had decided, was how earnest Martin’s expression was. She glanced down at the statement still lying on her desk, then back across at him, dutifully ignoring the nervous twitch of his hand as he adjusted his glasses.

“Before this all started, you and Jon once brought me a cup of tea at the same time,” she said at last. “Don’t you remember that? Nothing has changed.”

Martin was properly staring at her now. “No, I don’t. And I’m not – this isn’t a long term thing I’m talking about, Sasha. I think something happened to him in Artefact Storage. And now he won’t stop acting – different.”

“Martin, I wish I could reassure you, but honestly? I think you might just be stressed.” she replied, keeping her face carefully blank to hide the frisson of anxiety those words had caused. She knew what Artefact Storage was like, didn’t she? She’d worked there for long enough, but it didn’t seem possible that something else weird might happen right after Prentiss. Surely if this sort of thing was meant to happen often – whether or not it was real seemed rather a moot point now – she would’ve been warned by Gertrude or Elias in advance. It seemed ridiculous enough she had the entire Archive to sort, never mind interpersonal work problems. “Just try and put it out of your mind, all right?”

She watched Martin swallow, eyes lingering again on the tape recorder behind for a moment before nodding and turning towards the door. “Right. Sorry. I’ll, uh – I’ll just go. Still need to finish that background research on Jennifer Ling, so …”

Sasha did her best to smile kindly at him. “Maybe just try talking to Jon? We’ve all been through a lot. Might be worth talking to Tim, too.” she added with a frown. “I don’t think he’s taking it very well either.”

Martin had frozen by the door, his expression an uncomfortable mix of disquiet and fear. “Jon used to bicker with Tim,” he said quietly. “A lot. They don’t anymore.”

Again, that uncomfortable feeling. Sasha pushed it away hurriedly, turning towards the desk and reshuffling the papers in an attempt to look like she was busy. It felt wrong, ignoring Martin, when he’d been ignored for so long already, but this wasn’t logical, was it? Even if everything else had been turned on its head … that didn’t extend to them. It couldn’t. She wasn’t going to let it.

“Just let me know if you find anything,” she said quietly, not turning around. Martin didn’t say anything else; just breathed in sharply before slipping out, the door closed quietly behind him because even after everything Martin didn’t like to inconvenience other people. A good job Jon was as nice as he was or they’d already be fighting, she thought.

Except … no, that wasn’t right. But it had to have been, didn’t it? She couldn’t fault her own memory – could remember meeting them all on her first day as Archivist, still slightly worried about Gertrude’s disappearance, but trying to be happy … But there was something about the image of Jon, blond-haired and smiling in the office, that didn’t quite sit right with her …

No. She was getting distracted. There was still Gertrude’s murder to think about, and that would require some investigation of her own. She could worry about Martin and the others later, she decided. When all fear was behind them and life had returned to normal, they could worry about themselves. She would teach herself how to be vain and how to cover up scars that never should have existed, and she would learn how to file the Archive in accordance with the values of someone she’d thought she’d known better. Who, for all her competence, still baffled Sasha utterly in how great a mess she had left, not to mention the random tapes that kept cropping up everywhere she looked …

 _Later_ , said that small voice in her head, the one that sounded like reason. Problem solving first, and people later. Maybe she’d even talk to Jon herself.

**Author's Note:**

> low key wanna write more of this au if people have suggestions? feel free to leave kudos/comment, makes my day :)


End file.
